"Don't worry about her Rose, I can handle her but I won't say we know each other just yet, I'll leave that to you."
Rose had a sudden thought. She had told Beth and Maggie about him, about getting him on the sofa and kissing him with his shirt off and if Beth told Ellie, even after she found out he'd got her job? She didn't want to think of it, it would embarrass Alec in the eyes of his DS. It was already seven thirty and Alec was about to call for a taxi to take him back to the hotel but she had to warn him.
"Alec, you need to know something before you go. I sort of told my friends Beth and Maggie, the newspaper editor about us, on Friday night after Beth asked me how I got on with you and they sort of know we kissed and I got your shirt off." If that didn't blow it, nothing would and she wouldn't see him again. "I didn't tell them your name though but Beth saw you at the pub on Friday night. I'm so sorry Alec but she might tell Ellie."
Alec looked at her. She thought he was going to be fuming but he started laughing. "I knew you three were up to something on Friday night. They were daring you to go to the bar and chat me up, weren't they?"
"You're not mad? I mean when Ellie finds out, she'll use it to her advantage and you don't need that. I'm so sorry Alec but on Saturday morning I had no idea things were going to go the way they did, neither of us could have known. It was sort of a game we play."
"Then tell me later, I should go now or I'll be late on my first day and that will start me off right with my new chief. I'll see you tonight Sweetheart and don't worry, I know what you women get up to. I might be a bit late, I'll have to pack and check out."
"I'll make you something nice, Italian again, maybe a bottle of wine. Are you allowed wine?"
"Just one glass and I really must go." He kissed her again and called for a taxi.
It took him only five minutes to get back to his hotel but Becca was already on duty when he arrived and saw him coming in.
"Good morning Detective, you must have been out early this morning." She hadn't seen him since Saturday night, he must have sneaked Rose Tyler out of the back yesterday morning. Maybe she had changed her tactics and Hardy had stayed at her place last night. Ah well, there was plenty of time, Rose would get tired of him sooner or later, they all ended up in her bed when Rose had finished with them.
"Miss Fisher is it? No actually I wasn't out early and I'll be checking out later, I've made other arrangements, nearer to the Police Station. You can send my hotel bill there, they were picking up the tab until I started work. Now excuse me, I have to change and get breakfast before I'm due to start work."
Becca just swallowed. She could have done with the extra revenue, the Police had arranged for his stay and were going to be paying his bill and she was going to charge them for a single occupancy of a double room and it wasn't the season yet. She didn't know exactly where Rose Tyler lived but she could guess it was near the Police Station. Perhaps a bit of juicy gossip wouldn't go amiss but he was a Police Detective, best not, he'd know where it came from unless she heard it first.
Rose started hanging Alec's new clothes in her wardrobe, having to move some of her dresses up but she had them spread out anyway for easy access. She thought she might iron his new shirts that were in packets when she got back if the creases didn't come out of them. She never thought she would be taking care of a man, when she used to travel in the Tardis, the ship did everything for her but the last few years she had learned a few skills. She assumed Alec would be bringing his laundry back with him, she'd have to do that tomorrow. She set off to work and made a note to get some new keys cut and then later call at the supermarket to stock up on extra groceries, she couldn't let him take her out every night. She still had the cash he gave her yesterday, she would put it towards the groceries.
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Alec entered the Police Station and got his new ID badge for Broadchurch Police and his work mobile from the front desk that had been left for him. He had filled in all the forms on Saturday morning but still had to go to the personnel department after he had been to see his new Chief Superintendent. He was just making his way upstairs when he heard a cheery voice behind him with greetings from the desk he had just left of 'welcome back' and 'had a good holiday' and knew it must be Ellie Miller and was glad he hadn't been seen. He had been told where the chief's office was and found it without any trouble and knocked on the door.
He waited to be told to enter and Chief Superintendent Jenkinson was sat behind her desk, waving him to sit down.
"Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, welcome to Broadchurch Police. I see you picked up your ID badge. You can keep your old one for now, if they don't want it back or if you return to Scotland it might be as well. So, you've had a few days to settle down are you finding your way about? Is your hotel to your liking? You will be expected to make a contribution towards it if you don't find a place of your own when your first two weeks are up. Any questions?"
They had already talked via video conference and they had got most of it out of the way. She had only hired him on his merits, not on the disastrous case that had caused all his problems and had believed he was grossly misjudged and should never have been blamed for the actions of the officer who had made the mistake, whether she had been his wife or not. She had learned he had subsequently been divorced and put on desk duty until he could be transferred and he had been waiting over a year after it was all cleared up and she had wanted to give him a break. She wasn't looking forward to facing DS Miller, who she had virtually promised the job to but she figured Hardy was a more deserving case and Miller would survive, Alec Hardy had been tossed to the lions but she was going to keep it quiet.
Alec spoke up. "I appreciate you taking me on and I'll try to keep up to your expectations Ma'am. I've found other accommodation so I'll be checking out of the hotel by morning, I've found something a few minutes walk away, I'll give the details when I visit personnel. I know this is a six months trial but if it works out, I would like to be considered for a permanent post, I've made a friend since I arrived."
Jenkinson was intrigued. Had he got himself a girlfriend? That she must see. According to his record he was divorced, the resident grump of the division in Glasgow and kept to himself. He had seemed less friendly on the video conference but he had been polite, probably relieved to be getting away and his colleagues glad to be rid of him and he was now her problem. She just hoped DS Miller and he would get on since they would be working together but if Hardy did have a girlfriend, at least he wouldn't be grumpy.
Jenkinson got up and said she would take him into the CID office and introduce him, then she remembered Miller and changed her mind so she sent him to personnel and said she would meet him there shortly instead. Alec left to go find personnel and the chief phoned Ellie's desk and asked her to join her. Alec went off to give his details and his new address, memorizing it after Rose had scribbled it down while he'd been waiting for his taxi, stuffing it in his pocket so he could give her an extra long kiss. Then he made his way to the squad room.
Ellie entered the chief's office and sat down. She soon stood up again as the chief explained she had given the job to someone else and she did not take it well.
"You gave the job to a man when you said we need a female DI? We don't have a DI, where did he come from?"
"DI Alec Hardy is from Glasgow, he's been transferred, he started this morning. He's waiting in the squad room. You'll be working under him so be civil please and before you say anything to him, he did not ask for this job, I chose him." She hadn't really, she had been asked to consider him and she had.
Ellie stood up and stormed out, Jenkinson went after her, she knew Miller had a temper. Alec was waiting, no-one was taking any notice of him as he went to the break area and made himself some tea, standing behind the door when the two women came in and Ellie didn't see him. He put his cup down and followed the chief, who got everyone's attention. Ellie looked round as she was sitting down the man standing there was Rose's victim from Friday night. Why hadn't Rose said anything, was she still seeing him or had she dumped him already?
"This is Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, he's your new DI. I expect you all to extend courtesy to him and follow his orders. You all report to him, he reports to me, no questions." She turned to Alec. "I'll leave you and DS Miler to get acquainted, she'll show you around. If you need a car, requisition one and we'll do our best but it's a small town, we can assign you a driver. DS Miller will drive you during the day. This is your office." She pointed behind where they were standing, it looked better than his last one.
Alec opened the door, took his jacket off and hung it up on the coat stand by the door, Ellie Miller followed him, she was not happy. Not just because her best friend had failed to tell her that the man she was out with on Saturday night was a DI, or the fact he was her new boss but the fact it should have been her sitting behind the desk he was just sitting down at. Before she had time to say anything, he came out with a dozen questions.
"So, DS Miller, bring me up to speed. Latest cases, cold cases, local villains, local trouble spots and do you have decaff tea in the breakroom, I can't drink normal tea and I prefer soya milk."
That gave the game away, Rose with her endless cups of decaff tea and her soya milk, she had even persuaded the caf they went in on Saturday mornings sometimes to start getting it for her and she knew instantly Hardy was still seeing her friend.
"You could have told me Sir, when my friend introduced us on Saturday night. You got my job."
Alec only kept his cool because he had promised Rose, the now love of his life, that he would handle her friend.
"You heard the chief, I didn't ask to be here, I didn't know they were sending me here until a few days ago and as for your friend introducing us, I didn't think it was relevant at the time, I was not officially working and what I do in my free time is no-one else's business. Now answer my questions if you will."
That was the start of a great working relationship not. Ellie answered his questions, determined not to let the fact that Rose was her friend and was like a younger sister to her, she had taken her under her wing when she'd arrived in town four years ago and didn't know anyone and introduced her to Beth, encouraged her to make friends and egged her on when she wouldn't get a regular boyfriend to the point it was a game between the three of them. Now Rose was involved with this man, who had sneaked in and taken her job and she only half believed her superior officer but his name seemed familiar, she had heard it before but where?
He was looking at her. "Anything else Miller?" he asked, picking up some folders on his desk and getting a pair or rimless glasses out of his top pocket, putting them on one-handed.
"If you don't mind Sir, I'd rather you called me Ellie, I don't like being called Miller all the time, everyone calls me Ellie."
He considered it and decided he couldn't go for it, he never called anyone working under him by their first name, it was a personal rule of his ever since his ex wife had been on his team. "No, it's bad policy, I expect you to call me DI Hardy or Sir when we're on duty." He wasn't going to say anything about Rose just yet, she probably already knew or had gathered, he'd given the game away at decaff tea and soya milk, Rose had already converted him.
Ellie said no and huffed out. She might be Rose's friend but she wasn't going to be bossed around by her latest 'boyfriend' who would probably be her ex-boyfriend in a day or two, Rose was excelling herself this time. Ellie made a note to call Rose and ask her about it and why she hadn't warned her but if he was asking for decaff tea and soya milk then Rose had already invited him to her place which wasn't like her at all, she never invited them home. Rose was asking for trouble getting herself involved with him, she knew his name from somewhere and she didn't think it was anything good. She would have to do some research on him later. After lunch Alec decided he wanted to be shown around so he called Ellie in she and reluctantly took him around.
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Rose had been given the third degree by Beth and Maggie as to how she got on with her new friend and had to admit that she had spent the weekend with him but not all the details. She had to admit to herself she was a little more than thinking she was falling for him, she had fallen for him in a big way and she thought he felt the same. She would have to find time to call her mother, this was going to be serious. After lunch, it was quiet and Maggie was in her office so Rose took the chance to ask Beth to keep quiet about what she had said about Alec, under the circumstances but without actually telling Beth who he was but Ellie would already know now so she saw no harm in it and shared.
"Beth, what I told you the other morning about Alec, I want you to promise you won't tell Ellie, not just yet, she might be a bit upset."
"About you and him on the sofa you mean," laughed Beth. "That's the best bit Rose. She'll find out sooner or later but honestly, I thought you would have ditched him by now, they don't normally last this long."
"Please listen Beth, when I told you on Saturday, things were different, I didn't even know myself I would still be seeing him and it's complicated now because then, I didn't know who he was or why he was here, I mean I knew his name and he had been transferred here but not what he did."
Rose looked around and made sure Maggie was in her office, she didn't want this to get published or her mother would have something to say if she read it in the newspapers before she had been told first hand. "Beth, his name's Alec Hardy and he's the town's new DI, he got the job Ellie was after and she'll know by now. It won't have gone down well."
Beth was surprised to say the least. "You should have warned her Rose, how did he manage to get the job Ellie was promised?"
"Because he didn't know he as coming here until a few days ago. He'd put in for a transfer and was waiting for somewhere to accept him and the chief here took him on. I didn't know Beth, I only found out on Saturday afternoon, I went to lunch with him and he told me when he took me out to dinner later on, after we saw Ellie and Joe in the restaurant."
Beth laughed. "You mean she met him again and still didn't know who he was? That's just classic Rose, she'll be furious she met him twice and didn't know who he actually was." Beth couldn't stop laughing.
"Yeah well, he told me on Friday night he was in the Police, when he offered to walk me home but he didn't say until afterwards he'd got a transfer here or what his rank was, I thought he might be replacing Ellie as a DS and he'd be working under her, not the other way around."
Beth was still laughing. "Oh this is priceless Rose. You have my word I won't tell her about you and him, you know but I don't know about Maggie. Still, you didn't give her the details you gave me so you should be ok for now. You put him in a compromising situation Rose, him being a senior Police Officer."
"Well how was I to know? I was only going to let him walk me home, then he asked me out on Saturday night but changed his mind to lunch as well. That was already more than I usually went out with anyone. Then he took me out for the day yesterday then took me out in the evening as well. I think he's the one Beth, I've never met anyone like him before. My last boyfriend, back in London, he never treated me the way Alec does, he never had any money to spend on me, to take me out but I never felt about him the way I feel about Alec. I'm making him dinner tonight."
"Well Becca's going to be upset with you as well, you know she always gets your rejects."
"Well we went into the Trader's after we'd been out on Saturday night so she saw us together. She's probably waiting for me to dump him," Rose smiled. She wasn't going to add she was certain Becca had seen her and Alec go to his room or he was moving in with her. Her friends would find out sooner or later, preferably much later, when they had got used to seeing them together.
Rose finished work, got a taxi down to the supermarket where she got the keys cut and a taxi back home and set about preparing dinner for Alec. Once it was prepared, she called her mother and Jackie had been about to call her for not ringing over the weekend.